We are taking on water

20 June 2016

Fareham - Folly Inn

The plan was to go for a few days sailing round the solent but, it did not go the way it should have.
I left Fareham all was well the skies had become a little grey and the wind started picking up. My first stop was going tobe the Folly Inn and then onto Newtown Creek. A short while after leaving Portsmouth the seas started to get a bit lumpy the engine did not sound quite right at the time I had no idea that I was taking on a lot of water.

An hour later the seas had become quite nasty with big waves I was about 10 miles from Cowes and realised that I had a problem as I was taking on huge amounts of water though the prop shaft. I phoned my girlfriend to imform her all was well and that I expected to arrive at my destination soon.

The situation had now become worse the engine compartment was filling up and I was steering Pandora with my legs whiles I pumped the bilges. She become very unstable and I was not sure if I would make it the waves on our starboard side were now entering the cockpit. I thought that I was going to capsize due to the force of the waves and the extra water weight. I changed course to head into the waves and then changed back again when the waves got smaller.

I come alongside a pontoon by the Folly Inn and some fellow sailers assited in pumping the bilges I was exhausted. I rung seastart who arrived quickly. They found that I was taking on water though the propshaft and managed to stop the intake of water and moved me to anothother pontoon.

On the pontoon getting some cloths dry

The next day I had a lift out at the Kingston boat yard and saw the state of the stern gear. The cost to replace the stern gear washuge so I decided to seal the prop shaft hole and fit an outboard bracket.